Internet finds

Three internet finds that have cheered up my lunchbreak:

1. The results of the Guardian's 'perfect date' competition...which is your favourite? I like 'Viennese waltz' and 'Queen of Hearts' but the winning entry is pretty good too.

2. The Impossible Project - I was so sad when I found out they were discontinuing Polaroid instant film, but these guys are trying to start producing it again, which is very exciting for Polaroid lovers everywhere.

3. V has finally got his Mum's cookery blog up and running (that I talked about in this post), and just texted me the link to it. Check out Cook like Geetha for delicious vegetarian Indian recipes...though there are only a couple up there at the time of writing this.

Five a day

The parents were down from Norfolk at the start of the week and came over on Tuesday evening bearing gifts. Garlic and french beans from the vegetable patch, and a big box of jewel-bright damsons and greengages from the fruit trees. Too few to make jam from, too many to eat by myself, though I am most certainly trying - I have some on my desk at work today and am just nibbling and nibbling!

Swim

(image from here)

Oh it was hot yesterday. I met C after work and we jumped on the Number 24 to head to Hampstead Heath and the bathing ponds. The air on the bus was stifling, the seats prickly on our bare legs. By the time we had walked up the hill to the accompaniment of chirping grasshoppers, made a false turn along a gravel path through the long dry grass, then finally found the entrance to the mixed pond amongst the trees, we were aching for the cool water. It was less appealing on first sight however, a dark, murky brown, bordered by a strip of muddy grass scattered with ogling men, but it was so hot and we had come all that way, so we quickly changed into our swimsuits and clambered down the ladder before the warning signs about potential ear infections and gastroenteritis could put us off completely. Not quite the bathing scene from Atonement I was imagining!

Our (very) brief swim was actually extremely refreshing, surrounded by leafy trees and drooping rushes, and there is a sense of satisfaction from swimming outdoors in London. I am definitely keen to investigate some of London's other outdoor swimming spots, I have heard that Tooting Bec Lido is particularly worth a visit. I am also tempted to return to the Ladies Pond in Hampstead Heath, I have been there once a few years ago and remember more grass space for lounging than was at the mixed pond. Any recommendations?

That's what they call al fresco

At times, wandering around Bruges, the sun was so hot on our backs that I felt we might have been on the Mediterranean coast rather than in Northern Europe. Back in London, it is not much different, as the sun is finally blazing down from a blue, cloud-scattered sky. The basil on my windowsill is producing green, chlorophyll-packed leaves in abundance, and the English strawberries on sale in the supermarket are a deep, intense red. Yesterday evening I met up with some friends. Partly on account of the heat, and partly because of our Euro-stretched purses (the exchange rate is so bad at the moment!), rather than the pub we headed to Regent's Park instead, taking with us a blanket, some bottles of cider, some cans of pre-mixed G&Ts and Pimms, a bag of giant pretzels, and a box of raspberries. We sat on the grass and talked and drank and nibbled as the sun grew lower in the sky and the shadows grew longer and the music from 'Hello Dolly', on at the Open-Air theatre, began to fill the air.

And all that for the price of a single drink, had we chosen to have our drinks in the pub. Got to love al fresco London.

Oh and I have been given my first ever blog award by Trishieokoh at Under Lock and Key so thank you very much to her for that! I am not quite sure of the rules but think I need to pass it on to three other blogs that I very much enjoy reading, who will then pass it to another three and so on, so I am giving it to:

Book Early

Dreaming of an Aga

Seeds and Stitches

All these blogs brighten up my day whenever I see there has been a new post. Thanks guys!

In Bruges

Deep green canals. Cool stone bridges. Cobbled streets. Gothic churches, step-gabled buildings, leafy squares. Mornings exploring the city on foot and by boat. Creamy Belgian hot chocolate before the sun rose too high. Ice cold cherry beer in the heat of the day and warm evenings. Beautiful tapestries, intricate, delicate lace. The rich, deep, dark smell of the chocolate shop where we stocked up on gifts. Climbing the tall bell-tower, and surveying the city beneath us glowing in the late afternoon sun, as the sweat from 366 steps cooled on our backs. Hot, salty frites with a dollop of thick mayonaise eaten in a park by a fountain. Sifting through other people's junk at the flea market, walking away with dusty hands. Window box after window box, stuffed with geraniums in bubblegum pink and pillarbox red. Fluffy waffles with a dusting of icing sugar. Stumbling off the beaten track and finding beauty in the mundane, elaborate doorknockers, bicycles leant against walls and trees.

No sign of Colin Farrell (sadly).

I've always loved a train journey...

...so is it so very terrible that I am excessively excited about the Eurostar one tomorrow?! Forget flea markets, canals, frites with mayo, Flemish art, Belgian chocolates...I'm just really looking forward to settling down with a good book*, the latest Vogue, a few English plums and some of the best (and probably most expensive!) jellybabies in London (from here) whilst the English, French and Belgian countryside rushes by. I'm exaggerating of course; I am really looking forward to being in Bruges too, but the weekend is made all the more appealing by a good old train journey at either end!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, I'll be back next week with photos.

* I haven't yet starting this book, 'The Great Lover' by Jill Dawson, so cannot in fact assert whether it is good or not, but it features romance, Rupert Brooke AND The Orchard Tearooms in Granchester (one of my favourite escape-from-it-all places whilst at university in Cambridge) so here's hoping...

(It's in Belgium)

(image from here)

On Friday I am off on a four-day city break with some girlfriends to Bruges. I am very excited, even more so after seeing this film last Friday. It looks beautiful, all cobbled streets, gabled buildings and picturesque canals.

Anyone ever been?